If IITs decide to consider the HRD Minister's request they would not be able to hike fee for MTech or any other course this year as well. Last year, IITs had decided to hike fees for new MTech students from an average of Rs 30,000 a year to Rs 2 lakh per annum

There will be no increase in tuition fees for the upcoming academic year at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs), as well as IIITs, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal announced today. If implemented, this would be applicable to all courses, which include the MTech programmes. Last year, IITs had announced a hike in fees for MTech courseswhich led to protests.

During a live interaction with students today, the HRD Minister said, “Even though IITs and NITs are autonomous and financially self-regulatory institutes, we still had requested them to not take up the annual fee hike for this year considering the coronaviruspandemic. I had asked chairpersons to convey this to all the institute heads and directors and hope that this sentiment would be respected.”

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IITs had decided to hike fees for new MTech students from an average of Rs 30,000 a year to Rs 2 lakh per annum. The IITs had cited that the fee increase would mean those non-serious candidates would not take up this course. This was decided as every year at least 15 per cent seats across IITs go vacantas students drop out of the college on getting a job in PSUs. Both IITs and PSUs enroll students based on the GATE score.